


Bats in the Belfry

by AlexTheShipper, Biqueenie



Series: GRE vocab series [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Nightwing (Comics), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Angst, Batfamily, Bats, Family Issues, Gen, Gotham City - Freeform, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason Todd-centric, Resurrected Jason Todd, jason speaks his mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-07 22:17:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17969063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexTheShipper/pseuds/AlexTheShipper, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Biqueenie/pseuds/Biqueenie
Summary: Jason Todd's original plans for the evening had included fighting criminals and getting information off a rather sketchy guy with an eye-patch. Instead he was receiving a lecture from a guy that spends his nights dressing as a bat, not his idea of a good time.





	Bats in the Belfry

It was a dark and gloomy night which was par for the course in fucking Gotham. The sky was as dreary as ever the clouds were grey, the skyscrapers were grey, the lights were grey, even the little bit of blue peeking through the clouds was fucking grey somehow. The homogenous skyline never seemed to change, dark gothic buildings a dark gloomy sky which always left a foreboding sense that it would rain, which when it eventually did make the rafters hard to work on, it was really quite funny to watch the other bat idiots flail wildly as they tripped and stumbled across water slick rooftops. Seriously wear boots with rubber soles you complete and utter dumbasses. He could hear the cacophony of sounds that always seemed to exist in this godforsaken city, you know the honking, the sirens, the screaming, the usual.  It was honestly, as usual, a miserable fucking night.

Jason was perched under the ancient rusted bell that sat in the window of the weird old belfry that had mysteriously never been torn down, still standing like a monument to ancient times sitting smack dab in the middle of fucking town. Here he was waiting for his informant to arrive, a creepy dude with an eyepatch who gave Jason a weird vibe despite checking out in every single background check, and he had run several.

Ever since Bats had found his old spot at the abandoned docks, the one in the alleyway, and the one in the fucking Denny’s parking lot, he had to keep moving his meeting place around. And, it seems he would have to move it again as the soft whoosh of a cape could be heard behind him. When would Bruce learn that capes are fucking dumb? Everyone knows capes are dumb, even Dick knows capes are dumb. He turned around to find that Bats and the bat brats were all here, which was just fantastic.

“Oh, lookie the gang is all here, Bats you even brought your little sycophants with you.” Jason snarks bending forward in a mockery of a bow. “Damian looking like an angry kitten as usual I see. So what is this an intervention? Have I smoked too many cigarettes? Drank too much booze?” Jason jumped up grabbing onto the chain of the bell to look down at them with disdain as if they were nothing more than the rats that ran around the city streets.

“How about killed too many people!” And there was Dick with a pithy comeback as usual.

“Oh, if it’s intervention time I think its Bruce you should look at. His constant accretion of children is just getting so out of hand. Afraid one of the originals will die again?” Jason snarks, shooting a scathing look at Bruce from under his hood. “No? Does anybody have a burgeoning romance or anything else that we can talk about?” Jason glanced from face to face “Tim is Kon your boyfriend yet?” Tim looked at him with a look of pure boredom, not bothering to respond.  “Damn no responses? Well then, go ahead tell me how terrible I am.”

“There has been a surfeit of corpses around since you returned.” Bruce stated, wasting no words as usual. Although Jason really wouldn’t mind if he used less, like maybe none, none sounds good.

“And you blame me?” Jason asks, pulling his hand to his chest in mock offense. It wasn’t entirely his fault, he hardly could have caused that big of a problem all on his lonesome. “I’m not the cause of your little problem, perhaps one of your precious rouges managed to escape.” He shot Bruce a pointed grin. “Again. You know I don’t kill innocents, I only kill those who make themselves major problems.” Jason knows he isn’t speaking with complete probity, but honesty was never his strong suit.

“I’m sorry Jason but I just can’t believe you. You walk around and pretend what you do is just and right, but truthfully you are no better than any of them just like Ivy, Penguin, Cold you kill people and you don’t seem to feel any remorse. First you promise yourself just big villains, then any criminal how long until you do kill innocents. You can’t choose who lives and dies. You are not Judge Jury and Executioner.” Bruce scolded every inch the angry father he liked to pretend he was. He and Jason circled each other as he spoke their voices echoing strangely from the bell.

“If you had the balls to make that decision to actually kill the villains to actually get rid of them, how many people wouldn’t have died? Innocents wouldn’t have died. _I_ wouldn’t have died, Bruce. I died and you just buried me and moved on, as if nothing happened. I take care of the problems you just put them off until the next little prison break, by not killing the one asshole you chose to let hundreds of people die, and you call me a murderer.” Jason scoffs, looking down his nose at his former mentor.

“Jason that isn’t fair, I didn’t just move on after you died, I mourned y-” Jason slammed his hand against the bell cutting Bruce off.

“And What good did that do me?” Jason screamed his voice accompanied by the dull sound of the bell reverberating through the room. Disturbing the aerie in the rafters sending a scattering of feathers as the birds fled their nest.

“Jason-“ Bruce attempted to placate Jason, hoping to defuse the situation. Jason could care less about his lectures and his morals.

“I abjure your ideals Bruce, I reject you, I reject them. Really, I just want you to leave me the fuck alone.” Jason shoved past Bruce, he was absolutely fucking done standing around here. Fuck his meeting he just needed to be away from Bruce and his yes-men. “I’m not one of your Robins anymore Bruce.” And with that last remark he leaped out the window, somersaulting onto a nearby rooftop. In mere moments he was back at street level putting the belfry far behind him without a glance back ignoring the shadows following him.

He pulled his gun from its holster, after all there was work to do.  

**Author's Note:**

> I'm currently studying for the GRE and wanted to work some words into a fic, these are the ones I used.  
> Belfry- A bell tower or a room in which a bell is hung  
> Burgeon- to grow and flourish  
> Accretion- the increase in amount  
> Pithy- short and to the point  
> Sycophant- yes-man  
> Homogeneous- of a similar kind  
> Surfeit- excess  
> Probity- complete honesty  
> Aerie- high up nest


End file.
